Eagan man's death in fight with roommate determined a homicide

Authorities determined on Friday that a 36-year-old Eagan man who died during what police say was a liquor-fueled fight with his roommate earlier this year had been murdered.

Jonathan T. Lahr, 36, was found unconscious and with facial injuries a little before midnight on New Year’s Day in a unit in Cinnamon Ridge Apartments in the 4500 block of Slater Road, police said. Efforts by police officers and other first responders to revive Lahr at the scene failed, and he was declared dead about 30 minutes later.

The 28-year-old roommate was the one who called law enforcement and said he had been fighting with the victim, according to police. He was arrested, then released the next day and has yet to be charged.

On Friday, the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office determined that Lahr’s manner of death was a homicide and that his cause of death was blunt-force injury to the head and neck.

Authorities have said they believe alcohol was involved in the fight. Preliminary breath tests administered to two other people in the apartment measured their blood-alcohol levels at 0.195 and 0.205 percent, more than twice the legal limit for driving in Minnesota.